Best human-nature & self Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“The one aim of [my] yoga is an inner self-development by which each one who follows it can in time discover the One Self in all and evolve a higher consciousness than the mental, a spiritual and supramental consciousness which will transform and divinize human nature.”

Humans Self Spiritual Spirituality Consciousness Human Nature Development Higher Yoga Aim Evolve Self Development Inner Self Higher Consciousness

Author:Sri Aurobindo

“To be enthusiastic about doing much with human nature is a foolish business indeed; and, throwing himself into his work as he was doing, and expecting so much from it, would not the tide ebb as strongly as it was flowing? It is a rash game this setting our hearts on any future beyond what we have our own selves control over. Things do not walk as we settle with ourselves they ought to walk, and to hope is almost the correlative of to be disappointed.”

Humans Heart Self Games Walks Human Nature Ought Foolish Setting Settings Settling Disappointed Throwing Expecting Tides Self Control Enthusiastic

Book:The Nemesis of Faith

Source: The Nemesis of Faith

“For as long as men and women have talked about war, they have talked about it in terms of right and wrong. And for almost as long, some among them have derided such talk, called it a charade, insisted that war lies beyond (or beneath) moral judgment. War is a world apart, where life itself is at stake, where human nature is reduced to its elemental forms, where self-interest and necessity prevail. Here men and women do what they must to save themselves and their communities, and morality and law have no place. Inter arma silent leges: in time of war the law is silent.”

Source: Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations

“It's a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature and of the concepts of liberty, freedom, and self-determination. It's a fundamental misunderstanding of economics. He (Obama) believes that the pie is fixed and that he needs to more equitably divide up the slices.”

Needs Believe Humans Self Liberty Human Nature Concepts Determination Economics Fundamentals Fixed Divides Self Determination Pie Misunderstanding

Author:Paul Ryan

“For human nature is strange: the less we are inclined to self-sacrifice, the more we insist on it in others.”

Humans Self Sacrifice Human Nature Strange Self Sacrifice

Author:Bolesław Prus

“It is a curiosity of human nature that lack of self-assurance seems to breed an exaggerated sense of power and mission.”

Humans Self Seems Atheism Human Nature Curiosity Missions Positive Atheism Assurance Exaggerated Self Assurance

Book:The Arrogance of Power

Source: The Arrogance of Power

“Both Self-restraint and Unrestraint are a matter of extremes as compared with the character of the mass of mankind; the restrained man shows more and the unrestrained man less steadfastness than most men are capable of.”

Men Self Matter Character Shows Mankind Human Nature Mass Capable Extremes Restraint Self Restraint Steadfastness

Book:The Nicomachean ethics

Source: The Nicomachean ethics

“The hunger [to success] is the same, no matter what it is that you're doing. It's like an unquenchable thirst to learn more, or to feel like you could have done more, and to be brutally honest and self critical, which is very hard to do. It's easy, and human nature is to just blame somebody else. It's very, very hard to self assess.”

Feels Humans Self Matter Hard Done Easy Honest Human Nature Like You No Matter What Blame Hunger Critical Thirst Brutally Honest

Author:Kobe Bryant

“Ressentiment is a self-poisoning of the mind which has quite definite causes and consequences. It is a lasting mental attitude, caused by the systematic repression of certain emotions and affects which, as such are normal components of human nature. Their repression leads to the constant tendency to indulge in certain kinds of value delusions and corresponding value judgments. The emotions and affects primarily concerned are revenge, hatred, malice, envy, the impulse to detract, and spite.”

Source: On Feeling, Knowing, and Valuing: Selected Writings

“Others form man; I tell of him, and portray a particular one, very ill-formed, whom I should really make very different from whathe is if I had to fashion him over again. But now it is done.”

Ifs Men Should Different Self Done Form Fashion Human Nature Particular Ill

Book:The Complete Works: Essays, Travel Journal, Letters

Source: The Complete Works: Essays, Travel Journal, Letters

“Presumption is our natural and original malady. The most vulnerable and frail of all creatures is man, and at the same time the most arrogant.”

Men Self Natural Human Nature Creatures Originals Vulnerable Arrogance Arrogant Frail Presumption Malady Most Arrogant

Book:Selections from the Essays

Source: Selections from the Essays

“My opinion is that we must lend ourselves to others and give ourselves only to ourselves. If my will happened to be prone to mortgage and attach itself, I would not last: I am too tender, both by nature and by practice.”

Ifs Giving Self Lasts Opinion Practice Happened Human Nature Mortgage

Book:The Complete Essays of Montaigne

Source: The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“There is a certain amount of purpose, acquiescence, and satisfaction in nursing one's melancholy.”

Self Purpose Certain Sadness Human Nature Amount Satisfaction Melancholy Nursing Acquiescence

Book:The Essays

Source: The Essays

“For human nature, being more highly pitched, selved, and distinctive than anything in the world, can have been developed, evolved,condensed, from the vastness of the world not anyhow or by the working of common powers but only by one of finer or higher pitch and determination than itself.”

World Humans Has Beens Self Common Human Nature Higher Determination Distinctive Vastness

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins (Illustrated)

“I have come to realize that in every person there is something fine and pure and noble, along with a desire for self-fulfillment.”

Persons Self Desire Realizing Human Nature Fine Pure Noble Fulfillment Purity Nobility Self Fulfillment

Book:I'll Never Lie to You

Source: I'll Never Lie to You

“People are less self-conscious in the intimacy of family life and during the anxiety of a great sorrow. The dazzling varnish of anextreme politeness is then less in evidence, and the true qualities of the heart regain their proper proportions.”

People Heart Self Quality Family Human Nature Sorrow Anxiety Conscious Evidence Intimacy Proportion Family Life Self Conscious Politeness Dazzling True Intimacy

Book:Armance

Source: Armance

“My uncomfortable duty as a Christian is to confess the truth, so lethal to our self-centered human nature: 'Jesus, who suffered your sin unto his own death, calls you likewise to forgive, so that God's purposes may be accomplished in both you and your offender.”

Humans May Self Christian Purpose Jesus Sin Human Nature Duty Forgiveness Forgiving Uncomfortable Accomplished Self Centered Offenders

Author:Gordon Dalbey

“If you ask a Saudi Imam why women in Saudi Arabia can't drive, he'll say, 'Because Islam demands it.' But that's absurd, because - first of all - Islam demands no such thing; and secondly, the only country in the world in which women can't drive is Saudi Arabia. The inability to understand the difference between a cultural practice and religious belief is shocking among self-described intellectuals.”

“What proposition is there respecting human nature which is absolutely and universally true? We know of only one,--and that is not only true, but identical,--that men always act from self-interest.”

Knows Men Humans Self Humanity Interest Human Nature Propositions Self Interest Identical

Author:Thomas B. Macaulay

“War is never lenient but where it is wanton; where men are compelled to fight in self-defence, they must hate and avenge. This may be bad, but it is human nature; it is the clay as it came from the hands of the Potter.”

Men Humans May War Self Hands Hate Fighting Human Nature Compelled Clay Potters Defence Wanton Self Defence Lenient

Author:Thomas B. Macaulay

“Even if this advice to portfolio decision makers to drop dead is good advice, it obviously is not counsel that will be eagerly followed. Few people will commit suicide without a push. And fewer still will pay good money to be told to do what is against human nature and self-interest to do.”

People Ifs Humans Stills Self Interest Decision Pay Advice Human Nature Suicide Investing Commit Makers Fewer Self Interest Good Advice Portfolios Good Money Decision Makers

Author:Paul Samuelson

“It is easy enough to say, Be true to your values. But what if your values are irrational? Or what if the virtues you have committed yourself to are so much against human nature that they cannot be practiced consistently? Be careful of what you accept as your code of morality. Think carefully about whether its tenets serve your life and well being. Exercise critical judgment. Realize how much is at stake-your life, your happiness, your self-esteem.”

“Human nature means battling constantly between being completely self-absorbed and trying to be a communal creature. Nature makes you a communal creature. The ultimate single-minded, self-centered creature is a cancer cell. And mostly, we're not made up of cancer cells.”

Trying Humans Mean Made Self Human Nature Creatures Ultimate Cancer Cells Self Centered Self Absorbed

Author:George Lucas

“As I see it, there are two great forces of human nature: self-interest, and caring for others. Capitalism harnesses self-interest in a helpful and sustainable way, but only on behalf of those who can pay. Government aid and philanthropy channel our caring for those who can't pay. But to provide rapid improvement for the poor we need a system that draws in innovators and businesses in a far better way than we do today.”

“I think most generations tend to learn the lesson of war the hard way. There is a deep attraction to the empowerment. Freud is right: societies either become locked in a collective embrace of Eros, as individuals do, or a collective embrace of Thanatos, the death instinct. They swing between the two. The notion that societies are naturally prone toward self-preservation is wrong. Self-annihilation can be deeply addictive, intoxicating, enticing. So I take a darker view of human nature, that war is probably always going to be with us. I think history bears me out.”

“Before modern man can gain control over the forces that now threaten his very existence, he must resume possession of himself. This sets the chief mission for the city of the future: that of creating a visible regional and civic structure, designed to make man at home with his deeper self and his larger world, attached to images of human nature and love.”

Men World Humans Self Home Force Cities Existence Modern Human Nature Creating Gains And Love Structure Possession Deeper Missions Chiefs Visible Civics Resumes Modern Man Love And Nature

Author:Lewis Mumford

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”

Self Spiritual Understanding Leadership Business Psychology Relationship Awareness Human Nature Positive Thinking Humility Communication Wise Words Perception Discovery Self Awareness Profound Annoying Interaction Partnership Our Relationship Imitation Bad Ass Thyself Relationship Advice Psychiatrist Psychologist Be True To Yourself Being Single Human Relationships Of My Mind Love Relationship Funny Relationship Irritating Synchronicity Interacting Irritated Memories Dreams Reflections Irritation Understanding Others Social Interaction Self Understanding Relationships With Others Self Knowing Self-examination Happy Relationship Interacting With Others Knowledge And Understanding Collective Unconscious Love And Relationship Psychoanalytic Understanding And Love Optimistic Life Awareness Of Life Love Wisdom Funny Being Single Understanding Yourself Light Of My Life Perception Of Others Awareness Of Others Working A Lot Spiritual Relationship Inner Darkness Profound Thoughts Spiritual Partnership Understanding Things Understanding Knowledge Being Annoyed Two Personalities Reader's Digest Understanding Everything Becoming Who You Are Deceiving Ourselves

Book:Memories, dreams, reflections

Source: Memories, dreams, reflections

“Kant regards the universalizability test for maxims as focused on a very special sort of situation: one where the agent is tempted to make an exception to a recognized duty out of self-preference. The universalizability test is supposed help the agent to see, in a particular case of moral judgment, that self-preference is not a satisfactory reason for exempting yourself from a duty you recognize. Kant thinks, as a matter of human nature, that this situation arises often enough and that we need a canon of judgment to guard against it.”

“Self-image sets the boundaries of individual accomplishment.”

Self Individual Human Nature Identity Integrity Individuality Boundaries Accomplishment Hypocrisy Cybernetics Psycho Cybernetics

Book:Psycho-Cybernetics: Updated and Expanded

Source: Psycho-Cybernetics: Updated and Expanded

“Conservatism vests in and depends on the widespread, informed understanding of human nature, self-governance and the First Principle of Progress: free people interacting in free markets produce the greatest good for the greatest number always, but only, when tethered to virtue and morality.”

People Firsts Humans Self Understanding Numbers Principles Virtue Progress Human Nature Produce Depends Morality Free Market Governance Conservatism Interacting Vests

Author:Mary Matalin

“The flesh, or human nature, is generally lazy and self-centered.”

Humans Self Human Nature Flesh Lazy Self Centered

Author:Joyce Meyer

“Human nature is complex. Even if we do have inclinations toward violence, we also have inclination to empathy, to cooperation, to self-control.”

Ifs Humans Self Violence Human Nature Empathy Complexes Cooperation Self Control Inclination

Author:Steven Pinker

“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”

Source: Mark Twain's Essays: Top Essays

“So then, the relationship of self to other is the complete realization that loving yourself is impossible without loving everything defined as other than yourself.”

Self Impossible Human Nature Self Love Defined Realization Loving Yourself Loving Everything

Author:Alan Watts

“And of all illumination which human reason can give, none is comparable to the discovery of what we are, our nature, our obligations, what happiness we are capable of, and what are the means of attaining it.”

Inspirational Giving Humans Mean Self Reason Happiness Human Nature Capable Discovery Obligation Compare Illumination Attainment Cognition Human Reason

Author:Adam Weishaupt

“Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.”

Source: Native Son

“I can easily believe it. Women of that class have great opportunities, and if they are intelligent may be well worth listening to. Such varieites of human nature as they are in the habit of witnessing! And it is not merely in its follies, that they are read; for they see it occasionally under every circumstance that can be most interesting or affecting. What instances must pass before them of ardent, disinterested, self-denying attachment, of heroism, fortitude, patience, resignation-- of all the sacrifices that ennoble us most. A sick chamber may often furnish the worth of volumes.”

“I think that most of us, anyway, read these stories that we know are not "true" because we're hungry for another kind of truth: the mythic truth about human nature in general, the particular truth about those life-communities that define our own identity, and the most specific truth of all: our own self-story. Fiction, because it is not about someone who lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about oneself. --From the Introduction”

Thinking Knows World Humans Kind Real Self Stories Community Fiction Human Nature Identity Possibility Particular Oneself Hungry Real World Introduction

Book:Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”

Inspirational Persons I Can Self Motivational Success Motivation Decision Inspiring Destiny Human Nature Identity Positive Inspirational Life Personality Becoming Decided Encouragement Addiction Individuality Recovery Accountability Self Determination Destined Our Destiny Changing Your Life Your Destiny Stay Strong Insperational Make You Think Just Be Yourself My Destiny Take Control Fate Destiny Strong Will Changing My Life Motivational Leadership Never Give Up On Something Best Person Inspirations Being Yourself Inspirational Change Cool Motivational Maximizing Words Of Courage Lift You Up School Days Life Changing Inspirational Taking Charge Destiny And Choice Life And Inspirational Motivational Life Changing Life Motivation Motivation And Change Life Best Inspirational Words Of Inspiration Encouraging Life My Life Is Changing Motivational Life Yourself And Life Most Encouraging Creating Your Life Amazing Inspirational Realize Life

Author:Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The man who must brag for himself knows that no one else will”

Knows Men Self Human Nature Boast Brag

Book:Royal Assassin: The Farseer Trilogy

Source: Royal Assassin: The Farseer Trilogy

“Theologians in all the great faiths have devised all kinds of myths to show that this type of kenosis, of self-emptying, is found in the life of God itself. They do not do this because it sounds edifying, but because this is the way that human nature seems to work. We are most creative and sense other possibilities that transcend our ordinary experience when we leave ourselves behind.”

Way Humans Kind Self Shows Seems Found Sound Behinds Creative Human Nature Possibility Type Ordinary Myth All Kinds Theologian Great Faith

Book:The Spiral Staircase

Source: The Spiral Staircase

“Every persisting marriage is based on fear', said Peregrine. 'Fear is fundamental, you dig down in human nature and what's at the bottom? Mean spiteful cruel self-regarding fear, whether it makes you to put the foot in it or whether it makes you to cower.”

Humans Mean Said Self Feet Human Nature Fundamentals Bottom Spiteful

Author:Iris Murdoch

“Pride... is a very common failing, I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed; that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or the other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”

“According to Dickens, the first rule of human nature is self-preservation and when I forgive him for writing a character as pathetic as Oliver Twist, I'll thank him for the advice.”

Writing Firsts Humans Self Character Advice Human Nature Forgiving Preservation Twists Pathetic Self Preservation Dickens Oliver Twist

Book:Jellicoe Road

Source: Jellicoe Road

“Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.”

People Inspirational Humans Persons Self Success Strength Human Nature Self Esteem Self Help Acceptance Positive Inspirational Life Confidence Self Love Self Confidence Self Worth Esteem Uplifting Self Acceptance Love Yourself Be You Self Care Beautiful Life Personal Branding Loving Yourself Loving Life Have Confidence Overrated Worthiness Just Be Yourself Boost Self Confidence Boost Self Esteem Accepting Yourself Respect Yourself Self Esteem And Confidence Achieving Success Help Yourself Self Confident Achieved Success Overestimate Boost Your Confidence Self Concept My Self Worth Boost Your Self Esteem Just Love Yourself Building Confidence Confidence And Love Inspiring Self Esteem Love My Self Self Loving Inspirational Self Esteem Love And Acceptance Self Worth And Love Great Self Esteem Value Yourself Inspirational Self Confidence Confidence In Others Building Self Confidence Love Acceptance Help Self Esteem Estimating Self Confidence Building Improve Self Esteem Is It Worth It Value Of Love

Author:Malcolm Forbes

“Something in human nature causes us to start slacking off at our moment of greatest accomplishment. As you become successful, you will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your sense of balance, humility and commitment.”

“Two purposes in human nature rule. Self- love to urge, and reason to restrain.”

Love Humans Two Self Reason Purpose Human Nature Acceptance Self Love Urges

Author:Alexander Pope

“Our greatest enemies, the ones we must fight most often, are within.”

People Humans Self Fighting Enemy Human Nature Self Esteem Esteem

Author:Thomas Paine

“Believing ourselves to be possessors of absolute truth degrades us: we regard every person whose way of thinking is different from ours as a monster and a threat and by so doing turn our own selves into monsters and threats to our fellows.”

Thinking Way Believe Persons Different Self Truth Turns Human Nature Absolutes Regard Fellows Threat Monsters Way Of Thinking Degrade Absolute Truth

Author:Octavio Paz

“We cannot doubt that self-interest is the mainspring of human nature. It must be clearly understood that this word is used here to designate a universal, incontestable fact, resulting from the nature of man, and not an adverse judgment, as would be the word selfishness.”

Men Humans Self Facts Would Be Used Interest Liberty Doubt Economic Human Nature Judgment Understood Economics Universal Selfishness Self Interest Adverse Nature Of Man

Author:Frederic Bastiat

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Human Nature Quotes